Maryland at a Glance State Profile - Gov. Glendening (D) - Sen. Sarbanes (D) - Sen. Mikulski (D) Presidential Politics Congressional Districting - 01 - Gilchrest (R) - 02 - Ehrlich Jr. (R) - 03 - Cardin (D) - 04 - Wynn (D) - 05 - Hoyer (D) - 06 - Bartlett (R) - 07 - Cummings (D) - 08 - Morella (R) Almanac 2002 Home States & Districts Elected Officials For district profiles and additional information on the elected officials of Maryland, please use the pull-down menu above.

Southern Maryland was first settled by Catholics, the Calvert family of the Lords Baltimore, who founded St. Marys in 1634, not long after Jamestown and Plymouth Rock. Maryland became one of the two great Chesapeake tobacco colonies, and plantation houses were built on every inlet off the broad Potomac and Patuxent Rivers. For years, none of these towns grew much, and even today many people here are directly descended from the old families. But tobacco farming is nearing an end here as 70% of the state's 950 remaining tobacco farmers have applied for a state buyout offered by Governor Parris Glendening. The biggest growth came from government installations like the Civil War Point Lookout prisoner-of-war camp and the Patuxent River Naval Complex, where many astronauts got their first training. This was never puritanical country: liquor flowed even during Prohibition and slot machines were specifically allowed for years by Maryland law.

The 5th Congressional District includes the three counties of southern Maryland, now attracting people who grew up in metro Washington and Baltimore, plus large slices of suburban Prince George's and Anne Arundel counties between Washington and Annapolis. Its lines were drawn to make the adjacent 4th District in Prince George's majority-black, though with blacks moving outward in Prince George's and southern Maryland's historic black population, the 5th was 29% black in 2000. Many of its people live north of Washington, in College Park, home of the University of Maryland, and in Hyattsville, Greenbelt, Beltsville and Laurel. The 5th also includes southern Prince George's, from Clinton south, and the suburbs of Bowie, Crofton and Davidsonville just west of Annapolis. Historically, this is a Democratic area. As blacks move to places like Bowie, the median household income has increased, but so has racial tension.

The congressman from the 5th District is Steny Hoyer, a veteran Democrat and one of his party's leaders in the House, who was first elected in 1981. Hoyer was elected to the Maryland Senate in 1966, at 27, just after graduating from law school. He was Senate president from 1975-78, the youngest in Maryland history; he made a misstep running for lieutenant governor on a losing ticket in 1978. But when the 5th District, then entirely in Prince George's, was declared vacant in 1981--after incumbent Gladys Spellman went into an irreversible coma--Hoyer won the special election by edging out Spellman's husband and several other Democrats in the primary and beating a well-financed, competent Republican candidate in the general.

Interestingly, Hoyer is of Danish descent, like the original Prince George. He has fine political instincts, works hard and can speak in an old-fashioned patriotic style that is genuinely moving. A fast riser in Maryland politics, he was also a fast riser in Congress. He excelled at constituency service and soon won a seat on the Appropriations Committee, where he became a key player for the whole D.C. metropolitan area. When Democrats had control, Hoyer chaired the Treasury, Postal Service and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee, which oversees several major components of the federal work force and the White House budget. He used the panel to get $6 million for flexiplace telecommuting centers, to encourage buyouts when payrolls are reduced, to kill a Republican proposal to require federal employees to pay fair market value for parking, to get a 4.8% raise for all federal employees in 1999 with a formula that increased it in the Washington area to 4.94%, and to roll back benefit contribution rates for federal employees to 1998 levels in 2001. He has pushed for funding for Chesapeake Bay cleanup and dredging the Bay for Baltimore harbor; he got into a dispute with Wayne Gilchrest over whether dredging spoils should be dumped near the Bay Bridge. He got money for Pfiesteria research, adding acreage to the Patuxent wildlife reserve, buying a 5,500-acre parcel along the Potomac, which includes a Civil War encampment and North America's largest ship graveyard, and starting the Chesapeake Bay Oyster Recovery Project. He got the proposed National Harbor resort exempted further federal review in 1999. Hoyer has worked indefatigably and shrewdly to maintain and increase jobs at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, and the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Indian Head. He uses his Appropriations seat to fund programs and to see that local facilities are suited for them. In summer 2000 he added to the Clinton budget $3 million for the Joint Strike Fighter, $2.5 million for Force Operational Readiness Combat Simulator, and $7.5 million for a Navy Remote Emitter Simulator. He helped get the Marine Corps chemical and biological warfare team moved to Indian Head in 2000. "This is a business," he says, "where you're either growing or you're going."

Hoyer's voting record is fairly liberal, though less so than when he represented a near-black-majority district in the late 1980s. He broke with party lines by supporting the balanced budget amendment in 1995, but worked hard in 1996 to support Democratic stands on the minimum wage and health insurance portability; he backed NAFTA, GATT, fast track and Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China. He was the chief House sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. He opposes the partial-birth abortion ban and called the Republican bill "an outrageous, partisan political approach." He backs the Shays-Meehan campaign finance bill. In June 1999 he helped launch dozens of motions against the legislative appropriation, arguing that the Republican leadership unilaterally rewrote the appropriation bill. He defended raising the president's salary to $400,000 on the ground that the current value of George Washington's salary was $4.6 million. He begged Speaker Dennis Hastert to lobby for the resolution supporting the Bosnia bombing in April 1999, which was defeated 213-213--"one of the most shameful things the House has done since I was a member." In 2000 he supported a bill to allow local zoning decisions to be appealed to federal court. In February 2001 Hoyer offered a bill to provide $434 million to phase out punch-card ballots. In March 2001 he was one of 10 Democrats urging President Bush to end preferential treatment for Smith & Wesson.

In 1989 Hoyer was elected chairman of the Democratic Caucus, a term-limited position he left in 1994. When he tried to move up in June 1991, he was beaten for majority whip by David Bonior, who had the support of liberals and committee chairmen, 160-109. He then became chairman of the Democratic Steering Committee and was parliamentarian at the 2000 Democratic National Convention. During much of 2000 he conducted a campaign for majority whip against Nancy Pelosi, all premised on the notion that Democrats would win control of the House. He ran as the candidate with the more moderate voting record: "I represent the kind of district we need to win if we're going to win back and keep the House." He acknowledged Pelosi's appeal as a woman and a Californian, but insisted, "If the objective is to have the most effective whip, then I think I can do the best job of bringing the caucus together." The contest became academic when Democrats failed to win a majority in November 2000. But with the possibility of a Democratic majority next time far from remote, the race may continue through 2001 and 2002.

After the 1992 redistricting, Hoyer had some serious Republican competition. In 1992, against Lawrence Hogan Jr., whose father was a Prince George's congressman, Hoyer won 53%-44%, thanks to a 60%-38% margin in Prince George's. In 1994, against Donald Devine, director of OPM in the first Reagan term, he spent $1.3 million and won 59%-41%. He won by much wider margins in 1998 and 2000. Redistricting poses no terrors. Though he may lose some of Prince George's to the black-majority 4th District, he has shown he can carry southern Maryland and Anne Arundel; and redistricting is controlled by friendly Democrats who don't want to lose his clout on Capitol Hill.

Cook's Call:
Safe. With Democrats controlling the redistricting process in Maryland in 2001, Hoyer is likely to see this district shored up for him. It was one of the fastest growing in the state.

Update: February 25, 2002
By a 118-95 vote, Nancy Pelosi defeated Steny Hoyer in the race to succeed House Minority Whip David Bonior, who is giving up the post on January 15 to run for governor. One blank ballot was cast, but Jim Traficant, who is estranged from the caucus after his vote to re-elect House Speaker Dennis Hastert, did not vote. Pelosi's 118 votes came close to the 120 commitments she had long claimed to have. After the vote Hoyer said, "I will continue to work very hard on behalf of my district, my state and my nation and in that process will support Nancy Pelosi in her new role."

The People:

• Pop. 2000: 714,886; Pop. 1990: 597,573, up 19.6% 1990-2000.
• 62.9% White, 29.1% Black, 3.7% Asian, 0.4% Amer. Indian, 0.1% Hawaiian, 2.2% Two+ races, 1.7% Other. 3.9% Hispanic origin.

2000 Presidential Vote Gore (D) 149,191 (55%) Bush (R) 112,510 (42%) Nader (Green) 6,257 (2%)

1996 Presidential Vote Clinton (D) 117,345 (51%) Dole (R) 95,737 (42%) Perot (I) 14,546 (6%)